Like many schools, TCU offers scholarships for incoming students as part of the financial aid process. However, as you likely know, this scholarship application process can vary greatly from school to school. We try to keep the process as simple and painless as possible so you can spend more time enjoying your life and less time looking for money. With that in mind, here are a few things that are important to remember about our scholarship process!
Scholarships are academic in nature
For admission into TCU, we use what’s called a holistic review. Essentially, this means that every single part of the student’s application matters. Academics are important, but so are the applicants’ co-curricular achievements, their writing ability, and even factors such as whether or not they’ve visited campus. However, our scholarships are solely based on a student’s academics.
Scholarships are awarded automatically
There’s nothing you have to do in order to apply for a scholarship from TCU! Simply by applying for admission, you’re throwing your hat in the ring for a scholarship and we will automatically award you if you qualify.
Transfer students are eligible for scholarships, but the process looks different
Students who are transferring to TCU can receive academic scholarships, but we are looking at a student’s completed college hours and college GPA instead of their high school transcript or test scores. Transfer scholarships start at 27 credit hours and a 3.25 GPA and go up from there. These grades and hours do include any dual credit courses a student might have earned in high school, however. More information on transfer scholarships can be found here.
We will accept new academic information
We will use the academic information you provide in order to determine scholarships. That said, we are happy to integrate any new data you send our way. If you apply by the Early Action deadline on November 1st but have a great fall semester that raises your GPA or if you take your ACT or SAT again and bring your scores up, let us know! If you qualify for a new or increased scholarship, we’ll automatically award it to you.
There are additional scholarship opportunities
Frequently, we hear from students interested in additional scholarships. While the Office of Admission only offers the academic scholarships we’ve discussed here, there are a few other options to peruse:
- Special Eligibility Scholarships may be awarded from the Office of Financial Aid to students who fit certain criteria. More information can be found here.
- Students who don’t receive an academic scholarship can receive on for their second year and beyond for a strong academic performance as a freshman. Each year, we award 10,000 dollar/year scholarships to students without scholarships and high GPAs after their first year on campus.
- Many individual departments offer scholarships for students after their first year or two at TCU. Researching specific academic majors or departments can help shine a light on some of these opportunities.
Beyond these scholarships, TCU will accept any additional aid from outside sources. If you’ve earned money from any organization or group outside of TCU, that money can be used however you’d like (within the guidelines set by whoever is awarding the scholarship). During my last two years as a student at TCU, I used an outside scholarship to pay my off-campus rent and buy textbooks. Scholarships don’t just have to go towards tuition!
We encourage you to self-report your scores
A self-reported score can include a screenshot of your ACT or SAT result, an unofficial copy, or even an email to us that just has your score on each individual section. We’ll accept these for both admission and scholarship purposes so you don’t have to worry about paying to have your official scores sent our way. We will need an official copy after you put down your deposit and reserve your spot in the incoming class of students, but not before then.
We hope this helps to answer your questions about the scholarship process at TCU! If you have any other questions about scholarships or financial aid, you can reach out to our office at frogmail@tcu.edu or to the Office of Financial Aid at finaid@tcu.edu.
Dalton Goodier is a senior admission counselor in TCU’s Office of Admission. He only watched one quarter of the Super Bowl last night and doesn’t feel like he really missed that much.